10 Ways to Improve Data Backup

Using common data backup services such as ottomatikis the primary method of protecting your data. However, using this approach is not enough; there are many other things that you must do to guarantee the security of your backed-up data. Moreover, in the current times, cyber attacks on backed up data are on the rise. Therefore, companies must constantly revise their data backup practices to ensure that they are doing the right thing always. Here are a few tips that you can use to improve the way your backup your data. The tips are important because they cover all aspects of managing data during the backing up and even retrieval stages.

Use an expert

It is always advisable to consult an expert while backing up your data. Normally, the data backup process is very complex. Although you may not necessarily need to show that you have the technical expertise related to the process for you to back up your company data effectively, at times, you may have to carry out a few technical processes for you to complete the process successfully. It is because of this that you may need the services of a data professional.

Plan for a possible security breach

When it comes to matters related to data backup, it is always a good idea to be prepared for a disaster. Normally, disasters may occur if your company becomes a target in a cybersecurity attack. Also, things may go wrong if there is a natural disaster at your premises and part of your data gets destroyed in the process. During such times, the way that you respond to them determines whether you will survive the calamity or not. If you have enough disaster preparation methods in place, then it may be easy to manage the crisis.

Use deduplication

Deduplication is an approach to backing up data that usually involves the process of evaluating data sets to identify duplicates. The duplicated data sets are then removed, and the remaining clean version of the data is compressed. The purpose of using deduplication is to reduce the amount of space that is used to keep data. If you have a lot of data, then you may consider the issue of space. When you use deduplication, you end up utilizing minimum space to store your data.

Take advantage of distributed backup processes

Distributed backup is one of the most important processes of managing the entire data backup process. The essence of distributed backup is that a company uses various nodes to store the backed-up data as opposed to keeping it in one place. The use of this approach is advantageous in several ways. For example, it speeds up the process of recovering data from the backed-up points. Also, when you distribute the places in which you store your data, you minimize the chances of losing the data if a calamity strikes your storage facilities.

Use 2FA

2-Factor Authentication is a process that is used to minimize the chances of unauthorized access to data or even accounts. In the case of data backup and security, the method is used to limit people who can access the stored data. In practice, the number of persons who can access data usually determines the level of risk that backed up data is exposed to. Therefore, it is prudent to protect your data using 2FA to limit the number of persons who can get access to the data at any given time. Moreover, when you use 2FA, you will be certain that the people who are accessing the data have genuine clearance and are using familiar devices.

Test the retrieval speeds

The speed at which you can access your stored data may be the single most important factors that determine whether you are resilient or not. Business resilience refers to the capacity of organizations to continue offering their essential services in the face of a disaster. If, for example, your premise is destroyed by fire, your capacity to continue offering your customers and other stakeholders the key services that they need is a measure of your resilience. In practice, this is possible if you can access your stored data within the shortest time possible. thus, the speed at which you can access the stored data, or the retrieval speed, should always be high enough to help you maintain your key services in the face of a disaster.

Train your employees

The way that your employees respond to crises can influence your ability to retain key services. Moreover, blunders by some of your staff may result in large-scale problems. Therefore, you need to be careful when managing the process to ensure that all your employees understand the security measures that you have put in place and how not to breach them.

Use the cloud

Cloud storage is one of the most secure and economical ways of backing up data. Cloud storage services normally run their services by offering companies space on their servers to store as much data as the firms would like to keep. The good news about using such services is that it is economical and that you can easily scale your data storage as your business grows.

Be conversant with the policies of your service provider

It is wrong to believe that if your service provider is a registered vendor, then the company has the best policies and practices in place. It may be wise to familiarize yourself with the policies that your firm uses to understand your rights and how you can enhance the process of keeping your data secure during storage.

Encrypt your data

Data encryption is conducted to enhance the security of backed up information. There are many encryption protocols that are in use; therefore, you must choose one that suits your needs. The most important advantage of encrypting your data is that if hackers find their way to your data backup warehouse, they will not be able to use it because they will need encryption keys.

In summary, these are important tips that you can use to address some of the most common challenges associated with backing up data. You can use them to keep your data secure during the backing up and retrieval process. Also, you can use the data to keep your services up and running if you become a victim of an attack.
Author Bio:-

Dayna Lutz is the content manager of Ottomatik which is an online platform for hosting your database backup on their storage platform. The company’s storage rides on top of Amazon S3 as well. In fact, they do all the legwork for you. Also, if you already have Amazon S3 credentials and want to store your backup files in your AWS account, controlled by you, then also you can use this platform.